This document discusses Follow the Money's transition to a membership-based business model for investigative journalism. Some key points: 1. Follow the Money launched in 2010 and struggled with the traditional advertising and paying readers models. In 2015, it introduced a membership model which grew from 2,400 members in 2016 to over 17,000 members expected in 2019. 2. Lessons learned include building a strong brand focused on hard-hitting, truth-based journalism; finding specialists to help convert visitors to paying members; listening to and engaging the audience as a community; and cooperating with allies to amplify impact. 3. While the membership model provides financial support, it also brings challenges like high member expectations and

1. … and the quest for a new business model
for investigative journalism

4. _WTF is Arne van der Wal?
_WTF is Follow the Money / FTM.nl?
_How we survive and thrive
_And some lessons learned

5. Founders Follow the Money
• Eric Smit (1967)
• Arne van der Wal (1963)
• Background: colleagues at Quote
• Financial & tech journalism
• FTM.nl launched in 2010
• Experienced journalists and
editors-in-chief

7. ‘Journalism is printing what someone else
doesn’t want printed; everything else is public
relations’

8. ‘The painful explanation of the obvious’

9. In short:
serious journalism = lousy business proposition

10. _advertising
_paying readers
_‘free’ news
_social media

11. Meanwhile…
• growing need for ‘hard facts’ in times of ‘fake
news’
• mainstream media under fire

13. ftm.nl
P L AT F O R M V O O R O N D E R Z O E K S J O U R N A L I S T I E K

18. Radical U-turn in 2015
• Membership model introduced in February 2016
• Paywall and Blendle-experiment
• Grants (Google DNI, Dutch Press Innovation Fund)
• Gifts (private persons)
• New shareholders >> capital to invest in website & growth

19. Lesson 1
BUILD A BRAND

20. FTM has a mission
• Hard hitting, uncompromising journalism for the public interest
• Truth > politics
• Every story: element of following the money
• We dig deeper
• Transparant about methods & mistakes
• Engaged members

21. Lesson 2
FIND A CONVERSION
SPECIALIST

22. Turning visitors into paying members
• Semi-open pay-wall
• Stop selling articles – sell impact and mission
• Learn from the conversion tricks of commercial enterprises
• Keep in touch with with (try out-) members: community building
• Newsletters, podcasts, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn – use every
channel and measure results
• Make it easy to join the club

23. Easy does it

24. Our growth
• February 2016 2.400 members
• February 2017 2.500 members
• February 2018 5.400 members
• February 2019 11.400 members
• June 2019 12.450 members
• December 2019 17.000 members (target)

26. Lesson 3
LISTEN & ENGAGE

27. Gamification (= behavioral design)
• Turn the audience into a community
• Ask for help: readers know more than you think
• Reward them (with recognition – not money)
• Organize engagement in a playful way
• Your audience = also source + research collaborators

28. _people read
_people respond
_people interact
_people play
_people co-create

33. Lesson 4
COOPERATE

34. Amplify your impact
• Work with your community: it’s your ambassador
• Look for (inter-)national allies
• Step out of your own bubble: find new target groups
• Share and make research dossiers accessible for outsiders
• Show you’re there for the long term: create in depth dossiers
• Market your product like a pro
• No false shame!

40. Lesson 5
BLESSINGS & CURSES

41. Pros & cons of our membership model
• Some members are real ***holes
• User interaction is key, but time consuming
• Member expectations to high
• Is the ‘pain’ great enough for the gain?
• Financial support (and even some legal protection)
• Love them, but NEVER give in to easy populist pressure
• Feeling of ownership helps when in trouble

42. arne@ftm.nl